AppIt Ventures' CEO Rob Carpenter answered our questions for this interview. 

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AppIt Ventures is a mobile app development company. AppIt works with entrepreneurs and small business owners to turn their app ideas into a reality. 
 
 

Give us the rundown of the company's past, present, and future: 

We were officially founded in January of 2012, though we started and launched our first product in November 2011. At that point, people started to ask us to do development, and that’s how we got into it. We had really tremendous growth in 2012, with lots of big projects for other clients. Now in 2013, we're focusing on building out our internal products as well as helping out other clients.

 

There have been a lot of transitions in your company; how big is it now?

Our team is currently two full-time people, 5 part-time people, and some outsourced developers. We're definitely looking to grow this year – we want to bring on potentially two people over the next two months. 
 

CEO Rob Carpenter and Marketing Specialist Brandy Anderson:

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You're a relatively new company; have you had any big successes so far?

Winning the OED business plan competition last fall was huge. It was a really incredible opportunity to meet a lot of great people in the community. We were featured in various media publications, met the mayor, and the people we met through that really helped us to build our business and get it to where it is now.

How about failures?

A big one was paying people less than they’re worth. We were trying to find people who were affordable and hoped to build them up over time. The challenge was that when other opportunities came along they’d jump ship. Now we are really focused on finding the right people and paying them what they’re worth.
 

What other advice would you give to fellow founders?

Make sure there’s a need for your product. A lot of people think that if they build it, the customers will come. I’m a big fan of the lean startup and finding ways to test your process. Do your research, go out, talk to people, see if they’re interested. Instead of trying to raise money, see if there are ways you can get investments in other areas.
 

Are there any tools or resources you use often?

In tech, things change so fast - you constantly have to stay on top of what's going on in the world. So it's important to continuously educate yourself. I really liked the books "Do More Faster" and "The Lean Startup."  

Really it's all about connecting with the local community – you always need customers, vendors, suppliers. Get involved in local meetup groups, read what’s going on (We find Built In Denver to be a really good resource) and stay plugged in to those local outlets.

Was there a particular reason you started up in Denver?

We picked Denver because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity here. It's just a fantastic group of people, advisors, other companies, customers, everyone is incredibly supportive. Everyone wants to see each other succeed and help each other out. There are devs moving here from all over the country, it's been named the #1 destination for 25-35-year-old professionals. There's a growing labor pool. The environment (except for today with the snow, haha) is pretty spectacular. I think people here are happier and want to lead more active lifestyles.

Read more about why to StartUp in Denver in this post by AppIt's own Brandy Anderson here. 
 

What are some challenges that you’ve faced?

When I started I didn’t have a background in software – it's been a tremendous learning opportunity. There are so many parts to it - how the process works, languages, skill levels, learning how to manage people and their skill levels. Really kind of working through that process of taking something from conception to live and generating downloads in the app store. It's been a really exciting experience, too – a lot of ups and downs. Overall, I think it’s been really positive. As a result we’re able to really help people and get some great products launched into the market.

What has been the most helpful thing in getting started?

I think people are really important. There are a lot of people who just want to help and see you succeed. If you just ask, 9 times out of 10 you’d be surprised how willing peole would be to support you. It's something that a lot of people won’t expect but, consider reaching out to your competitiors. At least in the tech space, there’s a lot of work going around. They might refer work they price themselves out of, and it becomes a win-win situation.

We’ve also had success reaching out to companies who serve the same clients but offer different services. i.e. web developers who don’t do apps, and vice versa.

What's AppIt's culture? 

We’re all very passionate about technology. We love what we’re doing, we enjoy inventing things, we love being on the cutting edge of what’s coming next. We get to really take prducts throughthe process and launch them and et the saticsfaction of seeing them laungh. We have a bit of a futurist mentality – we’re all excited about what it could be and how we can help make it.

We’re really excited about the future of technology. We're getting a Google Glass – we’re hoping we can start playing with it in the next few months and building mobile apps and AR for the Google Glass device. We think there’sgoing to be a tremendous amount of growth with wearable technology. What you see over that course is tech becomes smaller – it gets out of your way, but therefore also gets to be ubiquitous. It's fascinating. 

Learn more about AppIt Ventures via their company profile, visit their website, follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter at @Appit_Ventures.